Forum on GHS soil testing in March

Updated 7:56 pm, Friday, February 8, 2013

A sign attached to a fence in the western parking lot at Greenwich High School Sept. 20, 2011, warns of PCBs unearthed during the school's project to build a new auditorium and music space. Testing will resume on the property over the winter recess. less

A sign attached to a fence in the western parking lot at Greenwich High School Sept. 20, 2011, warns of PCBs unearthed during the school's project to build a new auditorium and music space. Testing will resume ... more

The school district has scheduled an open house next month to discuss the results of soil testing at Greenwich High School and plans for remediation.

The forum will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. March 6 at Central Middle School, a few weeks after the latest round of soil and groundwater testing at the school, and after the long-awaited music instruction space and auditorium project, known as MISA, was put to bid.

Officials -- including representatives from AECOM, the environmental consultant hired by the town to conduct the site investigations, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and state Department of Public Health -- will discuss the results of testing, done since 2011, when workers on the auditorium project discovered soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, behind the building.

Testing is also being done over the February break, connected to the $37 million MISA project.

Joseph Ross, chairman of the MISA Building Committee, said the EPA has asked for testing of soil that is in the trenches for water, sewer and electrical lines for the project. The soil is in the school's west parking lot.

In December, the EPA gave the district the go-ahead for constructing the auditorium before toxic soil is removed from the rest of the campus.

Under the approval, the district is required to remove and dispose of all contaminated soil in the MISA footprint. Ross said the additional testing over the February break is related to the approval.

At the end of January, the district also received approval from the state Bureau of School Facilities to go out to bid for the MISA project. Ross said the project was put out to bid Friday.

Bids are due in three to four weeks, and will be opened publicly at the Havemeyer Building, 290 Greenwich Ave.